By Ren Siebenga
Leaders give leadership, creating meaning and taking responsibility to create what should be out of what is. Meaning in our lives exists in the tension between the reality of what is and the reality of what could, should, or must be. Leaders do this with words, story, using their authority, making decisions, and modeling the way to go, centred around a purpose that creates identity in a group and/or school.
The reality of life has both known and unknown sides to it. The known is the realm of order, security, predictability and standards. The process of life, however, often takes us into the unknown realm that can present promise, revelation, creativity and innovation—in other words, renewal and growth. Both the known and the unknown have their scary parts. The known can become blind, tyrannical, and stagnant. The unknown has chaos, terror and destruction to contend with.